In Springfield, Massachusetts, over 30 JwJ activists spent Labor Day outside a Verizon Wireless store with a giant rat. Around the rat’s neck: “Don’t Shop @ Verigreedy Wireless.”
In addition to leafleting customers and getting our message to the media and passers-by, JwJ activists committed to stand with Verizon workers until their fight is won.
Chants included, “Hey, Verizon, you can’t hide! We can see your greedy side!” and “Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes!”
IBEW 2324 Business Manager John Rowley exhorted the crowd, “This isn’t just about Verizon. This isn’t just about IBEW and CWA. … We cannot lose sight of what this movement is about. Jobs with Justice says it all!” In Western Massachusetts, JwJ activists will continue leafleting at 4 stores on Wireless Wednesdays and Saturdays, and will add other fun solidarity activities soon!
Comcast’s “Easy Pay” locations throughout Massachusetts were visited on May 11 by their customers and local community leaders concerned about the company’s treatment of its employees and lack of respect for workers’ rights.
Customers and community activists are disturbed about Comcast management’s refusal to discuss wages and working conditions with the majority of workers at its Fairhaven and Fall River, Massachusetts garages who freely decided to form a union with IBEW Local 2322 last fall.
“The workers at these garages have exercised their basic rights to form a union and have requested that management begin good faith negotiations with them,” said Eric Hetrick. “Giant corporations like Comcast should respect their civic and moral duty to comply with the law and our community’s values.”
The “day of action” coincided with Comcast’s Annual Shareholders meeting in Philadelphia.
“While the top bosses are celebrating their huge profits in Philly, community leaders are delivering letters asking local managers to communicate our concerns,” said Russ Davis, director of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice. “We need this company to respect workers’ rights and begin negotiations for the good jobs that our communities need.”
Jobs with Justice is one of the groups organizing visits to more than 45
Rite Aid Negotiating Committee after signing Tentative Agreement on May 1, 2011.Rite Aid workers at the company's massive Southwest Distribution Center in Lancaster declared victory on Sunday, May 1 in their five-year effort to form a union and improve working conditions.
Workers signed a 3-year tentative agreement with management on May 1 – subject to a May 12 ratification vote – that will improve conditions at the million-square-foot facility in California’s high desert by guaranteeing:
Health insurance rates that are fair for both individual workers and their families,
Job security provisions to prevent work from being sub-contracted,
A worker voice in production standards and ability to challenge unfair standards,
Protection against intense summer heat and winter cold, using innovative indoor-temperature standards,
A fair and impartial process for resolving disputes,
Wage increases in each of the next 3 years.
“We’re excited about winning this victory, even if it took longer than it should have,” said Carlos “Chico” Rubio, a 10-year warehouse worker who helped negotiate the union contract with a team of eight co-workers.
On March 15, AEEF/CWA Local 1300 and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice staged a rally at WGBH’s Brighton headquarters. About 100 union members and community supporters chanted slogans like “Shame on you, Channel 2, we expect more from you!” and “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, that’s what a fair contract means to me!” Many angry and frustrated union members gave speeches about the contract WGBH plans to enforce upon their workers.
At WGBH, the public television station known for producing shows such as Curious George, Antiques Roadshow, and This Old House among others, union workers have been trying to reach an agreement with management since August.
WGBH recently presented a “final offer” to the union which includes proposals for outsourcing and for allowing T.V. and radio personalities to be terminated without cause. On March 12, the union voted not to accept the agreement by an overwhelming 93%.
The goal of the March 15 rally was to get management to postpone imposing its final offer and instead return to the bargaining table with AEEF/CWA Local 1300.
Members of the rally had bull horns, whistles, and homemade signs and
The past couple of weeks have seen an inspiring upsurge in energy on the streets around the country in support of workers and against corporate control of the economy. In Boston two large demonstrations in support of Wisconsin workers made a powerful statement that people are tired of attacks against the middle class. Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and our allies brought thousands of people together—union members and non-union members alike—to show our support for workers’ rights and to “connect the dots” among our various issues to target corporate greed as our common enemy.
On Tuesday, February 22, about 2000 people gathered in front of the State House with a very focused message: collective bargaining is a right, and we stand with the workers of Wisconsin. The crowd of mostly rank-and-file union members swelled beyond expectations into the street.
Governor Deval Patrick, as well as Congressmen Mike Capuano, Steve Lynch, and Ed Markey, were in attendance and addressed the crowd to voice their support of collective bargaining rights. Speakers at the rally included labor leaders,
Rite Aid employees backed by Jobs with Justice and other community supporters are organizing a nationwide “Day of Action” on Wednesday, December 15 to focus public attention on the company’s culture of corporate greed and its assault on workers’ living standards and job rights.
Dozens of actions are scheduled at Rite Aid locations across the country, including stores in California, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. At each store, Rite Aid customers will be informed about:
Rite Aid’s decision to hike its CEO’s compensation to $4.5 million despite the company’s poor performance.
The company’s effort to impose huge cost increases on workers for health insurance.
Rite Aid’s disturbing pattern of delays and difficulty in reaching fair agreements with workers.
The company’s conversion of good jobs into low-wage positions with few benefits and no rights on the job.
The nationwide actions were sparked by a rash of recent decisions by Rite Aid officials:
In Cleveland, OH, executives are trying to dramatically increase employee health care costs. The company announced plans to impose higher costs on Jan. 1 that could lead to a possible strike.
In Lancaster, CA, Rite Aid executives stalled talks with 500 warehouse employees for nearly
The dust has settled on the mid-term elections. The Democrats lost the majority in the House and maintained a majority in the Senate by the hair on their chins. Many states faced similar turnovers in leadership in governor’s races and elections for state legislators.
Jobs with Justice coalitions reflect below on the impact of the elections on working people in their communities:
Chicago Jobs with Justice Director Susan Hurley and two members of their unemployed workers council were part of CNBC’s election night coverage. Said Hurley, “the people who we deal with who are unemployed are, frankly, terrified, because we know that by the end of December 2010, 3.5 million people are going to be thrown off all existing extensions to unemployment benefits. These are benefits that whenever they’ve come before the Congress, Republicans have filibustered.”
Tomorrow, Chicago Jobs with Justice Unemployed Workers Council members will call for a federal jobs program and unemployment benefits to be extended at an action aimed at “New Hire” Senator Kirk, “He’s Going to Work Immediately; Will We?”
The American Bankers’ Association held its annual convention in Boston this week, and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice participated in actions on Sunday and Tuesday with our local allies to demand action to help homeowners in this time of crisis. Recent revelations of foreclosure fraud and abuses have been been a stark reminder that the bailed-out financial industry is still not interested in helping families and communities recover, but are interested only in their own profits and bonuses.
On Sunday, October 17, a group of over 100 people came together at Copley Square and marched to the Hynes Convention Center to call for a national moratorium on foreclosures and a real loan modification program to keep families in their homes. Jobs with Justice activists joined JwJ member organization City Life/Vida Urbana who led the way, with a giant banker puppet and red doors symbolizing the houses that the bankers are trying to foreclose on. They put on a skit to dramatize how greedy bankers (pumped up to comic proportions by their bailout money, perhaps?) knock on doors and try to throw people
Congressman Stephen Lynch, Fall River Mayor William Flanagan and community leaders representing the Massachusetts Workers’ Rights Board reviewed a list of employees at Comcast’s Fall River and Fairhaven locations and then checked it against union authorization cards voluntarily signed by employees at the same locations requesting IBEW Local 2322 to represent them.
Based on their card count, an overwhelming majority of Comcast employees in the above named locations desire to unite in IBEW Local 2322.
Rep. Lynch and Mayor Flanagan sent a letter immediately afterwards, “urging Comcast management to respect the employee majority and voluntarily recognize IBEW Local 2322 as their representative and begin collective bargaining for an agreement covering their wages, benefits and working conditions.”
“We requested the certification because we wanted to prove beyond a doubt to management that a genuine majority of our co-workers want to form a union and begin collective bargaining,” said Brian Almeida, a Comcast technician from the Fall River office who stared with the company in 2001.
Almeida was accompanied at the certification event by about 25 other Comcast employees
At a moment when the United States is struggling to revive the feeble economic recovery and maintain its eroding productive base, many prominent corporations are continuing to needlessly shut down highly profitable and productive plants.
Most gallingly for workers, some of these firms are spurning prospective buyers eager to keep the plants operating and preserve high-paying manufacturing jobs. While ignoring these potential buyers, the corporate owners are busily auctioning off valuable equipment and breaking up teams of skilled, dedicated workers.
The latest instance: Bellevue, Wash.-based aerospace firm Esterline Technologies is moving to shut down its Taunton, Mass. subsidiary Haskon, Inc., which has been producing sophisticated silicone gaskets and door-seals for all the major airplane manufacturers and the federal government for decades, and has provided good jobs in Taunton for over 80 years.
“We’ve always made money for whoever owned the operation,” says United Electrical (UE) workers Local 204 President Scott Marques.
SCRAP THE MACHINES, SCRAP THE WORKERS
“Esterline would prefer to just scrap the equipment and scrap the workers rather than allow the workers or another company to buy the machinery and
